Endorsements in 1-party Seattle: Litmus tests of candidate conformity

BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 9:39 pm, Tuesday, April 24, 2012

As normal folk were out enjoying last Sunday's glorious warm weather, members of King County Democrats' endorsement committee spent 14 hours laboring over who to propose as the party's "official" candidates in the August top-two primary.

Endorsements are the big deal for local political junkies right now. What's required -- in a one-party city -- is passing an ideological litmus test and possessing the iron butt needed to endure hours-long meetings with multiple points-of-order.

What should make non-junkies uncomfortable is how disconnected this courtship of activists is to the real life challenge of governing.

Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy.

A bit of background: Back in the Vietnam War era, "reform" activists lampooned official party candidate slates, stressing independence and following conscience.

The liberals' umbrella group in Chicago was called the Independent Voters of Illinois. A pro-peace Democrat challenged a party hack congressman in New Jersey using the slogan: "He's young. He's tough. And nobody owns him." Mighty Sen. Henry Jackson, in this state, faced (and beat) a primary challenge.

Alas, yesterday's reformers are today's party regulars. The contest now is courting people with the promise that they WILL own you, and piling up interest group endorsements like Baskin & Robbins ice creak flavors.

At the close of business on Tuesday, 36th District legislative candidate Gael Tarleton put out a statement headlined: "3 Chairs, 2 labor unions, 2 pro-choice champions and one Mary Lou Dickerson.

The release sounded like a political version of "The 12 Days of Christmas." Endorsement by outgoing State Rep. Dickerson was deemed "huge" for Tarleton because the Seattle Port Commissioner was supposedly "too moderate" for the liberals of Ballard, Queen Anne and Magnolia, the PubliCola website opined.

Do voters really want or need such filtering? Along the Ship Canal, and in the medical technology centers along Elliott Avenue West, are minds focused on what's closest to party activists' hearts -- contraception, abortion, marijuana and same-sex marriage?

Of course, our litmust-test liberals don't go nearly as far as Tea Party conservatives in very-Republican Utah. The Beehive State requires that officeholders and candidates get a certain percentage of the vote at party conventions to even be on the primary election ballot.

Incumbent, mainstreet conservative Republican Sen. Robert Bennett was unable to secure a place on the 2010 ballot. In 2012, Sen. Orrin Hatch has had to "answer" for such sins as working with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden on health care and his longtime friendship with Sen. Ted Kennedy. The right-wing Hatch was forced to move much further to the right, and won a place on the primary ballot.

Activists are taking our political parties way out there to the extremes.

As Hatch and Bennett found out, it is seen as a sin on the Republican right to work across the aisle on legislation. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, is under attack in his primary for the sins of voting for an Obama nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and working with the future president on curbing nuclear proliferation.

The litmus test in Seattle is rigidly "progressive." Stress race and gender. Support a state income tax, even though Washington voters just rejected the same. Oppose anything less, such as a temporary sales tax hike to support our starved public colleges and universities. Pander to the city's powerful transportation lobby by taxing evil drivers. Support expanded public transit, even to the absurd proposal that Seattle undertake to build a subway.

Effectively governing, be it in Olympia or Washington, D.C., has always meant working out society's compromises. It requires doing business -- and working out relations of trust -- with those of different backgrounds, party affiliations and points of view.

When that doesn't happen, chaos results. A big class of freshman Tea Party extremists, who won't deal even with their own party leadership, has paralyzed the U.S. House of Representatives, making it excruciating to do basic business.

With the exception of a powerful trio of legislators from the 43rd District, Seattle has less effective legislators in Olympia than when such districts as the 36th, 46th and 32nd were competitive between the parties.

We need a highly regarded candidate(s) who won't play pander bear, but take his/her case directly to the voters. Sgt. John Urquhart, running for King County Sheriff, did just that Tuesday in saying he will not seek endorsement from the guild that represents sheriffs deputies. If elected, he'll have to negotiate contracts.